THE KING IN JERUSALEM (Matthew 21)

THE KING IN JERUSALEM (Matthew 21)

H. A. IRONSIDE

MATTHEW 21 - Doubtless, those who welcomed Him into Jerusalem, as He rode upon the ass down the slopes of Olivet and into the Holy City, thought the hour of His triumph had come, and they believed that He was about to assert His royal authority and begin His beneficent reign over Israel and the subjected nations, making Jerusalem the capital of a regenerated world. All this shall indeed be in God’s appointed time, but He had other work to accomplish first. So the entrance into the city amid the plaudits of the populace was but preliminary to His death upon a Roman cross, where He was to make propitiation (rather than reconciliation) for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:17, R.V.). For Him, as we have seen already, there could be no Kingdom without the cross. 

Every move that the Lord Jesus Christ made, as He went through this world, was in exact accord with the prophetic Word and therefore in obedience to the Father’s will. To Him the one paramount object of His life was to glorify the Father.

  MATTHEW 21:5 - Zechariah had prophesied that the King would come into His royal city “riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zech. 9:9). All this was fulfilled literally as Jesus came down the slope of Olivet and into Jerusalem riding upon the unbroken colt. The disciples spread some of their own garments upon it as a saddle, and seated the Lord Jesus Christ upon them. It is significant that this humble creature was more subject to Him—its Creator—than men whom He had come to save. 

  Zechariah’s Prophecy. It is interesting to note how the two advents of our Lord are linked together in this passage (Zech. 9:9, 10). In verse 9 we see the King riding into His earthly capitol, presenting Himself to the people as their rightful Ruler. But although verse 10 follows this so closely, the events depicted in it will not be completely fulfilled until He comes again. It is then that He will speak peace unto the nations, and His dominion be set up over all the earth. 

The 118th Psalm. This Psalm deals largely with the time when the Lord will arise for the deliverance of Israel, when all their trials will be ended and they shall enter into the blessedness of that rejoicing and salvation which will then be found in the tabernacles of the righteous (ver. 15). But all this blessing depends upon the One who was first to be bound as a sacrifice to the horns of the altar. It was settled in the purpose of God from eternity that there could be no Kingdom till after the work of the cross was accomplished. While the welcome that Jesus received was quite in keeping with the divine plans, those who would have crowned Him as king at that time had to learn that He must first suffer many things, be crucified, and rise from the dead. In God’s due time the remainder of the prophecy will have a glorious fulfillment.

MATTHEW 21:13 - “My house shall be called the house of prayer.” This was the divine purpose, as declared by Isaiah the prophet (Isa. 56:7). In the coming day of the Kingdom, when Jerusalem becomes, in truth, the worship-center of the world, a new temple will arise, to which all nations shall resort. The one which then stood on Mt. Moriah had become “a den of thieves,” dishonoring to God and a stumbling-block to men.

  The fig-tree is the well-known symbol of Israel (or rather Judah) nationally: a fig-tree planted in a vineyard. When Jesus came there were the leaves of religious ceremony but no fruit for God. So they were given up to judicial barrenness for all the present age. There are three fig-tree passages that are definitely linked together and give us a dispensational picture of God’s dealings with the Jews: Luke 13:6–9; Matthew 21:17–20; Matthew 24:32, 33. 

  It is a terribly dangerous thing to trifle with the mercy of God. Little did the Jewish leaders realize that they were sealing their own doom in rejecting Jesus, the one sent of God to bring them into fulness of blessing if they had received Him. They lost their opportunity because they were blinded by self-interest, and so they failed to recognize their Messiah when He came in exact accord with the scriptures of the prophets which they professed to reverence. Mere knowledge of the letter of the Word saves no one. It is those who believe in the Christ of whom the Book of God speaks who are made wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). To reject Him is fatal. 

The fruitless fig-tree, cursed by Jesus, represented the religious nation which bore no fruit for God and so was rejected, and has been ever since dried up, as it were, from the roots. The parable of the two sons contrasts the legal self-righteous leaders of the Jews, who pretended to an obedience they did not carry into execution, with that of poor sinners, both Jews and Gentiles, who have heard and obeyed the word of the truth of the gospel. That of the vineyard tells of God’s care for and patience with His earthly people until they fulfilled their own Scriptures in rejecting His Son. The story of the marriage feast emphasizes the same truth and shows how the door of faith was to be opened to the Gentiles, but warns against mere profession, which can mean only judgment at last, as in the case of the man who refused the wedding garment.  

 A Jewish legend explained this verse by declaring that at the building of Solomon’s Temple a stone was sent up from the quarries at the very beginning for which the workmen could find no place, so it was thrown down into the valley below Mount Moriah—“The stone which the builders rejected.” Later they sent word that they were ready for the cornerstone, but the masons declared it had been sent up already. Finally someone recalled the disallowed stone, and a search in the valley brought it to light, and it was hoisted up to the mount again, and made the head of the corner.

“The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Israel after the flesh was to be put aside. The kingdom for which they had waited so long was to be lost to them forever. A new and elect nation, a regenerated Israel, shall possess the kingdom eventually. Meantime the grace of God is going out to the Gentiles.

Christ is the Stone of salvation; He is also the Stone of judgment. The Jews stumbled over Him and were broken (Isaiah 8:14). Some day He will come again, as the Stone falling on the image of Gentile power to grind it to powder (Daniel 2:34, 35).